The Mujtahid Ijtihad has been defined as the expenditure of effort, seeking the (prevalent) opinion about a thing from the Shari'ah rules in a manner such that the Mujtahid feels unable to do any more i.e. it is the comprehension of the Shari'ah text from Kitab and Sunnah after exerting one’s outmost in arriving at this comprehension to gain cognisance of the Shari'ah rule. This means three issues need to be fulfilled in the inference (Istinbat) of the Shar’ai rule before it can be said he has made the inference with a legitimate Ijtihad i.e. three issues have to be met before the action can be called Ijtihad. Firstly, exerting effort in a manner until he feels unable to exert any more. Secondly, this exertion should be in search for a prevailing opinion about an issue from the Shari'ah rules. Thirdly, this opinion about an issue should be from the Shari'ah texts because these texts are the only source from which Shari’ah rules may be derived. The Hukm Shar'ai i
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